Unchanging silence turned ominous between Rachael and Lucy facing each other at the front door.
One wordless and borderline solemn smile from Rachael wasn't enough to get Lucy to cave, god forbid she give her the satisfaction of wasting another word.
An onlooking Phoenix peeked from her barstool mid spoonful without a sound. If Rachael even so much as breathed incorrectly, Lucy's gaze was ready at attention.
It was Rachael who broke the thick, almost palpable silence. "Can I come in?"
Glancing at her to see what she made of all this, Phoenix furrowed at Violet, who was evading her eyes.
One deep, deprecatory sigh from Lucy... eyes monitoring her every move as she stepped aside and let Rachael in.
With a grateful nod, she stepped into the foyer and offered an impressive look of approval. "Nice place."
Not one step further before Lucy's crystal clear instructions interrupted her. "Take off your shoes."
Serious as a heart attack. Lucy directed her eyes right to their brand new white carpet then offered her traditional bow and Rachael took off her shoes, raising her brow at the command yet continuing without protest before following Lucy inside.
"It's great to finally meet you, Ms. Royce." Happy to see anyone other than Phoenix and Lucy, Violet greeted their guest of honor and ushered her toward a comfortable seat on the couch, watching Lucy roll her eyes. "Please, have a seat."
After returning a respectful greeting, she sat her handbag down and crossed her legs while Roman came downstairs with a nothing but foreign smile, leaning down to hug Rachael until her eyes began to water with nostalgic tears.
This day was already off to far too bizarre of a start for Lucy's liking. What would be next? Freddie and Brian hugging?
Roman clung to her hand still with a little twinge in his voice. "Is it nice to meet me too?"
And she smiled and pulled him by the arm to join her on the couch. "It is."
She looked over at Lucy too, who elected to say nothing to her, simply resisting the urge to scoff. 'Piss off' she wanted to say.
"I gotta say. Good job finessing yourself into past the odds into my office. Hardly anyone's able to do that." She included her in the conversation with her arm around Roman's shoulder. "Something I would do."
She looked back at Roman again and touched his cheek, who was still watching her with a soft-eyed smile that held a million questions searching for where to begin. "After the way you reacted, I didn't expect to ever see you again."
"I'm sorry for losing my temper like that." Her words hitting his eardrums yielded a bit of relief.
Still with nothing to say to Rachael, It took everything in Lucy's power for her eyes to not roll right out of her head. Thankfully, coming from the kitchen carrying a tray of choice tea & coffee was Phoenix, who sat it down on the coffee table.
"Stoic. Strongwilled. Like your father." Rachael commented on Lucy's silence with a smile after taking her first sip of tea.
"What was he like?" Roman didn't bother to bottle his excitement for the subject.
Looking to Lucy then back at him, her voice clouded with brief memories. "Like you."
Finally, Lucy spoke. "You don't know anything about me."
"You are right. I shouldn't have been so rude. Especially not to my children."
The room fell silent through Lucy's consideration until she cracked through the tension. "I suppose we blindsided you, huh?" She chuckled and pointed to her brother. "Roman made us do it. This was all his idea."
Rachael kissed two of her fingers and placed them on Roman's cheek with a smile. "That's like you. That's how I remember it." she rose to her feet to stand and headed back toward the door. "It was really nice meeting both of you."
Roman followed behind her. "Wait...is that it? You just got here..."
"I don't know what you were expecting when you came to my office, but I came to apologize for losing my temper. I shouldn't have blown up at you. You meant well."
"Well," Lucy showed her the way out just as quickly as she'd come in. "Glad we didn't bother booking another appointment for that."
"What about our father?" He overrode the promise of more disappointment to dig for as many answers as he could.
"I can't give you what you want—"
"You owe me this."
"I just didn't want children, that's it—"
"TELL ME ABOUT MY FATHER!"
She threw her arms up in frustrated defense and resisted a tearful breakdown, nearly screaming. "A liar! All he is. All he'll ever fucking be. He cared more about that special forces fighting agency than he did about either of you!" Her steaming rage boiled over till tears spilled down her cheeks. "He didn't give a damn about me either! He moved on. He found another woman and made other children that he seemed to be so much more goddamn proud of. Flashing and framing their fucking pictures... He left me with you two. Alone."
Admittedly, Lucy's now harsh and unsympathetic tone glazed over the paramount new information. "You could have tried harder. You just gave up on us."
"Didn't you hear what she just fucking said?" Roman came to Rachael's defense. "Don't talk to mom like that."
"Mom?! Now she's 'mom'?! You can get the fuck out too, right with her. I'm done. With all of this." Lucy's temper shot. "I finally found happiness in my life and I'm not gonna let you or her ruin it."
"Don't you worry about me. You'll ruin it all yourself." Rachael retaliated. "You have the same irresponsible taste in boyfriends that I do."
"Excuse me?"
"Men like him love sex and can have anyone they want." Her voice that mimicked the sensuality and sexuality in Freddie's aura brought back memories of their insatiable lovemaking.
"You don't know anything about him, and you don't know anything about me either."
"It won't be long before you find out he's fucked someone else. Just like your father."
When Lucy clenched her fist and drew her arm back to swing, Phoenix threw her arms around her body and stopped her. "Be cool, Lucy..."
The knob turned and in came Freddie through the front door, alone. "Oh—a party!"
"I'm going to fucking hit her." Phoenix had seen Lucy's right hook enough to take this threat of hers seriously. She spun Lucy in her arms to face her in hopes of absorbing her rage.
"That kind of party," Freddie slipped his shoes off and came to Lucy's side, touching her heating cheeks with the back of his fingers. "What's going on?"
"Lucy's just being cool... She's calming down, she's gonna chill isn't she?" Phoenix cooed, rubbing Lucy's arm.
"Yeah, tell her to fucking chill," Roman defended from Rachael's side.
"Freddie, I'm going to fucking hit her,"
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